How Can a SWOT Analysis Help Your MLM Or Network Marketing Business?

A SWOT Analysis is a common strategic practice in the business world that looks at the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats that a business has or might face.

It can be an extremely useful tool in assessing the status quo and future direction of your MLM or network marketing business. And, if you are experiencing information overload and don’t know what to do next, it can help you focus on building your business.

For our purposes here, the SWOT Analysis isn’t intended to be a “Big Project.” Just take 15-20 minutes to write down the following information about your MLM or network marketing business.You may be surprised by what you come up with.

Doing a SWOT Analysis

1. Define Your MLM’s Mission Statement and Goals

Before you jump into doing the SWOT, it’s critical that you know what your business’s goals are. And what your Mission Statement is.

Tip for Defining Your Mission Statement: Be inspiring: Don’t have your “Mission Statement” be something crass like “My Business’s Mission is to Make Money.” Have your Mission Statement be inspiring, a call to action, something like “My MLM’s Mission is to contribute to the well-being of Humanity (by offering products that promote health and wellness).” Here’s your opportunity to be inspired by your business, by yourself. Get it?

2. List Your MLM’s Strengths

What qualities or attributes does your business have that will help it achieve its goals? What’s your value-add? What are you good at?

3. List Your MLM’s Weaknesses

What’s holding you back? What do you not have enough of? What’s “broken” that needs fixing? What’s not allowing you to move forward?

4. List Your MLM’s Opportunities

What external things are contributing to your business’s success? What social movements or trends is your business leveraging? What tools and technologies can you incorporate to improve your business?

5. List Your MLM’s Threats

What external things are getting in the way of your business achieving its goals? Who are your competitors? What are your competitors doing or not doing that is impeding your business’s growth?

Tip for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats:

Focus on your business. When I say “Your MLM’s,” I don’t mean “Your Company” I mean you and your organization. You’re not necessarily in position to impact Your Company’s Opportunities or Threats, so focusing on your business will empower to you take the appropriate actions.

6. Analyze and Generate Strategies

Think about what you can do about what you’ve written. How can you turn “Strengths” into “Mastery”? How can you turn Weaknesses into Strengths? How can you maximize your Opportunities? How can you minimize your Threats?

a. Be Honest: This is really a tip for the whole process. Be brutally honest with yourself about the state of your business. You’re not trying to impress anyone. In fact, nobody else needs to see your SWOT Analysis. You’re simply trying to get profoundly related to what is actually happening in your business so you can do something about it.

b. Be Specific: When creating an Action Plan, be as specific as possible. “I need to improve my duplication results” isn’t nearly as powerful (or actionable) as “Next month, I intend to assist X members of my downline team increase their number of sponsored people by Y amount.”

By doing a SWOT Analysis periodically, you will be able to continually re-evaluate your progress and re-assess the shifting landscape of your market. It will help you cut through the information overload so that you always have a clear path to follow and defined next steps to take, while keeping your eyes on the prize.